Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Election Day

By tonight it will all be over but the shouting. The Carbondale Times got out a special election edition yesterday with last minute coverage of the Park District, School Board, and Mayorial races. Saw a huge stack of them at Schnuck's this morning.

Both Simon and Cole's campaigns have been busy calling voters. There were 4 people in the Simon office until at least 7 last night and an equal number in the Cole office. Simon has another group in this morning making calls again and I think I see a couple of heads in the Cole office as well.

From my point of view, I'd say Simon has done a better job of getting out the vote. There's been steady activity in her campaign office, which overflowed with volunteers on recent Saturdays, with little apparent activity in Cole's office on the same Saturdays I've received 2 calls from her campaign in recent days, none from Cole. After signing up for both campaign's email lists, I've gotten weekly emails from the Simon campaign, nothing from Cole. Both have had about the same number of newspaper ads and direct mailings. If the election comes down to who puts the most feet on the ground, I think Simon wins.

One of the strongest NATURAL proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ASS FOR A LION.

-Tom Paine, 'Common Sense'

and the common sense that should have been used in this race was that which said: "Sheila, political acumen probably skips generations...you don't play well when you speak...and if you just keep your mouth shut, you'll win"